Water resources

Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful to
humans.
Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and
environmental activities.
Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water.
97% of water on the Earth is salt water, and only 3% is fresh water of which
slightly over two thirds is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining
unfrozen freshwater is mainly found as groundwater, with only a small fraction
present above ground or in the air.
Fresh water is a renewable resource, yet the world's supply of clean, fresh
water is steadily decreasing. Water demand already exceeds supply in many
parts of the world and as the world population continues to rise, so too does
the water demand. Awareness of the global importance of preserving water for
ecosystem services has only recently emerged as, during the 20th century,
more than half the world’s wetlands have been lost along with their valuable
environmental services. Biodiversity-rich freshwater ecosystems are currently
declining faster than marine or land ecosystems.[3] The framework for
allocating water resources to water users (where such a framework exists) is
known as water rights.
 One estimate of global water distribution:
Water volume, in Water volume, in
Water source Percent of fresh water Percent of total water
cubic miles cubic kilometers
Oceans, Seas, & Bays 321,000,000 1,338,000,000 -- 96.5
Ice caps, Glaciers, &
5,773,000 24,064,000 68.7 1.74
Permanent Snow
Groundwater 5,614,000 23,400,000 -- 1.7
Fresh 2,526,000 10,530,000 30.1 0.76
Saline 3,088,000 12,870,000 -- 0.94
Soil Moisture 3,959 16,500 0.05 0.001
Ground Ice &
71,970 300,000 0.86 0.022
Permafrost
Lakes 42,320 176,400 -- 0.013
Fresh 21,830 91,000 0.26 0.007
Saline 20,490 85,400 -- 0.006
Atmosphere 3,095 12,900 0.04 0.001
Swamp Water 2,752 11,470 0.03 0.0008
Rivers 509 2,120 0.006 0.0002
Biological Water 269 1,120 0.003 0.0001
Total 332,500,000 1,386,000,000 - 100
Source: Gleick, P. H., 1996: Water resources. In Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather, ed. by S. H. Schneider, Oxford University
Press, New York, vol. 2, pp.817-823.
A graphical distribution of the locations of water on Earth.
Ice caps and glaciers - 68.7%, of which
Antarctic ice cap - 90%, 9700 years renewal interval
Greenland ice cap - 9%
Other glaciers - <1%, 1600 years renewal interval
Groundwater - 30.1%, 1400 year renewal interval
Surface water - 0.3%, of which
Freshwater lakes - 87%, 17 years renewal interval
Swamps - 11%
Rivers - 2%, 16 days renewal interval
Ground ice and permafrost - 0.86%
Atmosphere 0.04%
 Distribution of river water
The distribution of renewable river water across the Earth's surface is very uneven. Earth: 28% Water: 72%

Renewable river water (km³) Percent of world total

Continent or region

Sub-Saharan Africa 4,000 9.20

Middle East and North Africa 140 0.32

Europe 2,900 6.70

Asia (excluding Middle East) 13,300 30.6

Australia 440 1.01

Oceania 6,500 14.9

North America 7,800 17.9

South America 12,000 27.6

The areas of greatest concentration
of renewable water are
• The Amazon and Orinoco Basins (a total of 6,500 km³ or 15 percent of global runoff)
• East Asia
– Yangtze Basin - 1,000 km³
• South and Southeast Asia, with a total of 8,000 km³ or 18 percent of global runoff
– Brahmaputra Basin - 900 km³
– Irrawaddy Basin - 500 km³
– Mekong Basin - 450 km³
• Canada, with over 10 percent of world's river water and large numbers in lakes
– Mackenzie River - over 250 km³
– Yukon River - over 150 km³
• Siberia
– Yenisey - over 5% of world's fresh water in basin - second largest after the Amazon
– Ob River - over 500 km²
– Lena River - over 450 km²
• New Guinea
– Fly and Sepik Rivers - total over 300 km³ in only about 150,000 km² of basin area.
• And also the ratio of salt water to fresh is 40 salt to 1 fresh.
 Sources of fresh water

Surface water : Surface water is water in a river, lake or fresh water wetland.
Surface water is naturally replenished by precipitation and naturally lost
through discharge to the oceans, evaporation, evapotranspiration and sub-
surface seepage

Under river flow : Throughout the course of the river, the total volume of water
transported downstream will often be a combination of the visible free water flow
together with a substantial contribution flowing through sub-surface rocks and
gravels that underlie the river and its floodplain called the hyporheic zone. For
many rivers in large valleys, this unseen component of flow may greatly exceed the
visible flow. The hyporheic zone often forms a dynamic interface between surface
water and true ground-water receiving water from the ground water when aquifers
are fully charged and contributing water to ground-water when ground waters are
depleted. This is especially significant in karst areas where pot-holes and
underground rivers are common.
Ground water : Sub-surface water, or groundwater, is fresh water located in the
pore space of soil and rocks. It is also water that is flowing within aquifers below
the water table. Sometimes it is useful to make a distinction between sub-surface
water that is closely associated with surface water and deep sub-surface water in
an aquifer (sometimes called "fossil water").
Desalination : Desalination is an artificial process by which saline water
(generally sea water) is converted to fresh water. The most common
desalination processes are distillation and reverse osmosis. Desalination is
currently expensive compared to most alternative sources of water, and only
a very small fraction of total human use is satisfied by desalination. It is only
economically practical for high-valued uses (such as household and
industrial uses) in arid areas. The most extensive use is in the Persian Gulf
Frozen water :Several schemes have been proposed to make use of icebergs as a
water source, however to date this has only been done for novelty purposes.
Glacier runoff is considered to be surface water.
The Himalayas, which are often called "The Roof of the World", contain some of
the most extensive and rough high altitude areas on Earth as well as the greatest
area of glaciers and permafrost outside of the poles. Ten of Asia’s largest rivers
flow from there, and more than a billion people’s livelihoods depend on them. To
complicate matters, temperatures are rising more rapidly here than the global
average. In Nepal the temperature has risen with 0.6 degree over the last decade,
whereas the global warming has been around 0.7 over the last hundred
 Uses of fresh water

Uses of fresh water can be categorized as consumptive and non-

consumptive (sometimes called "renewable"). A use of water is
consumptive if that water is not immediately available for another use.
Losses to sub-surface seepage and evaporation are considered
consumptive, as is water incorporated into a product (such as farm
produce). Water that can be treated and returned as surface water, such
as sewage, is generally considered non-consumptive if that water can be
put to additional use. Water use in power generation and industry is
generally described using an alternate terminology, focusing on separate
measurements of withdrawal and consumption. Withdrawal describes the
removal of water from the environment, while consumption describes the
conversion of fresh water into some other form, such as atmospheric
water vapor or contaminated waste water.
 Agricultural

• It is estimated that 69% of worldwide water use is for irrigation, with 15-35%
of irrigation withdrawals being unsustainable.
• It takes around 3,000 litres of water, converted from liquid to vapour, to
produce enough food to satisfy one person's daily dietary need.
• This is a considerable amount, when compared to that required for drinking,
which is between two and five litres.

To produce food for the 6.5 billion or so people who inhabit the planet today
requires the water that would fill a canal ten metres deep, 100 metres wide and 7.1
million kilometres long – that's enough to circle the globe 180 times.
 Industrial
It is estimated that 22% of worldwide water use is industrial.[6] Major industrial users include hydroelectric dams,
thermoelectric power plants, which use water for cooling, ore and oil refineries, which use water in chemical processes, and
manufacturing plants, which use water as a solvent.
Water withdrawal can be very high for certain industries, but consumption is generally much lower than that of agriculture.

Water is used in renewable power generation. Hydroelectric power derives energy from the force of water flowing downhill,
driving a turbine connected to a generator. This hydroelectricity is a low-cost, non-polluting, renewable energy source.
Significantly, hydroelectric power can also be used for load following unlike most renewable energy sources which are
intermittent. Ultimately, the energy in a hydroelectric powerplant is supplied by the sun. Heat from the sun evaporates water,
which condenses as rain in higher altitudes and flows downhill. Pumped-storage hydroelectric plants also exist, which use
grid electricity to pump water uphill when demand is low, and use to stored water to produce electricity when demand is
high.
Hydroelectric power plants generally require the creation of a large artificial lake. Evaporation from this lake is higher than
evaporation from a river due to the larger surface area exposed to the elements, resulting in much higher water
consumption. The process of driving water through the turbine and tunnels or pipes also briefly removes this water from the
natural environment, creating water withdrawal. The impact of this withdrawal on wildlife varies greatly depending on the
design of the powerplant.
Pressurized water is used in water blasting and water jet cutters. Also, very high pressure water guns are used for precise
cutting. It works very well, is relatively safe, and is not harmful to the environment. It is also used in the cooling of machinery
to prevent over-heating, or prevent saw blades from over-heating. This is generally a very small source of water
consumption relative to other uses.
Water is also used in many large scale industrial processes, such as thermoelectric power production, oil refining, fertilizer
production and other chemical plant use, and natural gas extraction from shale rock. Discharge of untreated water from
industrial uses is pollution. Pollution includes discharged solutes (chemical pollution) and increased water temperature
(thermal pollution). Industry requires pure water for many applications and utilizes a variety of purification techniques both in
water supply and discharge. Most of this pure water is generated on site, either from natural freshwater or from municipal
grey water. Industrial consumption of water is generally much lower than withdrawal, due to laws requiring industrial grey
water to be treated and returned to the environment. Thermoelectric powerplants using cooling towers have high
consumption, nearly equal to their withdrawal, as most of the withdrawn water is evaporated as part of the cooling process.
The withdrawal, however, is lower than in once-through cooling systems.
 Household
It is estimated that 8% of worldwide water use is for
household purposes.[6] These include drinking water,
bathing, cooking, sanitation, and gardening. Basic household
water requirements have been estimated by Peter Gleick at
around 50 liters per person per day, excluding water for
gardens. Drinking water is water that is of sufficiently high
quality so that it can be consumed or used without risk of
immediate or long term harm. Such water is commonly called
potable water. In most developed countries, the water
supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of
drinking water standard even though only a very small
proportion is actually consumed or used in food preparation.
 Recreation
Recreational water use is usually a very small but growing percentage of total water
use. Recreational water use is mostly tied to reservoirs. If a reservoir is kept fuller
than it would otherwise be for recreation, then the water retained could be
categorized as recreational usage. Release of water from a few reservoirs is also
timed to enhance whitewater boating, which also could be considered a recreational
usage. Other examples are anglers, water skiers, nature enthusiasts and
swimmers.
Recreational usage is usually non-consumptive. Golf courses are often targeted as
using excessive amounts of water, especially in drier regions. It is, however, unclear
whether recreational irrigation (which would include private gardens) has a
noticeable effect on water resources. This is largely due to the unavailability of
reliable data. Additionally, many golf courses utilize either primarily or exclusively
treated effluent water, which has little impact on potable water availability.
Some governments, including the Californian Government, have labelled golf
course usage as agricultural in order to deflect environmentalists' charges of
wasting water. However, using the above figures as a basis, the actual statistical
effect of this reassignment is close to zero. In Arizona, an organized lobby has been
established in the form of the Golf Industry Association, a group focused on
educating the public on how golf impacts the environment.
Recreational usage may reduce the availability of water for other users at specific
times and places. For example, water retained in a reservoir to allow boating in the
late summer is not available to farmers during the spring planting season. Water
released for whitewater rafting may not be available for hydroelectric generation
during the time of peak electrical demand.
 World water supply and
distribution
Food and water are two basic human needs. However, global coverage
figures from 2002 indicate that, of every 10 people:
roughly 5 have a connection to a piped water supply at home (in their
dwelling, plot or yard);
3 make use of some other sort of improved water supply, such as a
protected well or public standpipe;
2 are unserved;
In addition, 4 out of every 10 people live without improved sanitation.[6]
At Earth Summit 2002 governments approved a Plan of Action to:
Halve by 2015 the proportion of people unable to reach or afford safe
drinking water. The Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000
Report (GWSSAR) defines "Reasonable access" to water as at least 20
liters per person per day from a source within one kilometer of the user’s
home.
Halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation. The
GWSSR defines "Basic sanitation" as private or shared but not public
disposal systems that separate waste from human contact.